The Slingshot: Jerusalem Embassy; the Poor Campaign; the benefits of fasting

U.S. President Trump’s daughter Ivanka, left, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin unveil a plaque during the opening ceremony of the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. (Flash90 Photo/Yonatan Sindel via AP)

Need to know: Tuesday, May 15, 2018

end times

For many evangelical Christians and Orthodox Jews, the controversial relocation of the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is not only a smart political move, but a key step in a biblical plan. More from Religion News Service

leading from the left

Reviving a campaign that foundered after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968, activists will call attention to government neglect of the country’s poor.
More from Religion News Service

dimming the spotlight

Prosecutors in two upcoming trials for Cardinal George Pell have want to bar the media from the proceedings. The move, aimed at keeping news stories from contaminating the juries' objectivity, would also shield judge and lawyers from public accountability. More from The New York Times

cosmic battles

Today, the idea that the universe began with the Big Bang is pretty much taken for Gospel, but for years after a French Catholic priest turned physicist came up with the cosmological model, atheist scientists were repulsed by its creationist overtones. More from Real Clear Science